Capacity of riparian buffer zones to reduce sediment concentrations in discharge from peatlands drained for forestry

Nieminen, Mika; Ahti, Erkki; Nousiainen, Hannu; Joensuu, Samuli; Vuollekoski, Martti

doi:10.14214/sf.371

Cited by 34 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…This may be true for upland buffers, but other factors than width are also important. Riparian buffers can be effective in reducing nutrients even in rather narrow states (Schoonover et al 2005, McKergow et al 2006 but their efficiency increases with width, forest cover, and longitudinal continuity (Scarsbrook and Halliday 1999, Nieminen et al 2005, Harding et al 2006). Verhoeven et al (2006) reviewed measurements from different regions around the world and concluded that 2-7% of the catchment area needs to be wetland habitat in order to provide efficient water quality improvement.…”

Section: Reduction and Deceleration Of Polluted Surface Runoffmentioning

confidence: 99%

Linking Flow Regime and Water Quality in Rivers: a Challenge to Adaptive Catchment Management

Nilsson¹,

Renöfält²

2008

E&S

159

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ABSTRACT. Water quality describes the physicochemical characteristics of the water body. These vary naturally with the weather and with the spatiotemporal variation of the water flow, i.e., the flow regime. Worldwide, biota have adapted to the variation in these variables. River channels and their riparian zones contain a rich selection of adapted species and have been able to offer goods and services for sustaining human civilizations. Many human impacts on natural riverine environments have been destructive and present opportunities for rehabilitation. It is a big challenge to satisfy the needs of both humans and nature, without sacrificing one or the other. New ways of thinking, new policies, and institutional commitment are needed to make improvements, both in the ways water flow is modified in rivers by dam operations and direct extractions, and in the ways runoff from adjacent land is affected by land-use practices. Originally, prescribed flows were relatively static, but precepts have been developed to encompass variation, specifically on how water could be shared over the year to become most useful to ecosystems and humans. A key aspect is how allocations of water interact with physicochemical variation of water. An important applied question is how waste releases and discharge can be managed to reduce ecological and sanitary problems that might arise from inappropriate combinations of flow variation and physicochemical characteristics of water. We review knowledge in this field, provide examples on how the flow regime and the water quality can impact ecosystem processes, and conclude that most problems are associated with low-flow conditions. Given that reduced flows represent an escalating problem in an increasing number of rivers worldwide, managers are facing enormous challenges.

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Section: Reduction and Deceleration Of Polluted Surface Runoffmentioning

confidence: 99%

Linking Flow Regime and Water Quality in Rivers: a Challenge to Adaptive Catchment Management

Nilsson¹,

Renöfält²

2008

E&S

159

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“…In Finland, the area of undrained spruce swamp forests in south-and mid-boreal vegetation zones has declined by 73% since 1950s, from 1 200 000 to 300 000 hectares (Kaakinen et al 2008), and they are consequently classified as threatened habitats (Kaakinen et al 2008(Kaakinen et al , 2012. Undrained spruce swamp forests sustain high biodiversity (Hörnberg et al 1998), store carbon, and filter catchment waters before they enter the watercourses (Nieminen et al 2005b). Due to degradation by drainage, these services are lost.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…If rewetting ceases the high CO2 emissions from old peat measured in drained sites (Ojanen et al 2013), significant carbon benefits are expected -but only if the decreased CO2 emissions are not counteracted by increased CH4 emissions from the blocked ditches and other new wet habitats (Cooper et al 2014, Koskinen et al 2012. Spruce swamp forests rewetted as buffer zones for runoff waters have functioned as efficient sinks for dissolved organic matter (Nieminen et al 2005b) and, after more than six years after rewetting, for phosphorus (Väänänen et al 2008) and nitrogen (Vikman et al 2010). During the first (seven) years after rewetting though, rewetting of spruce swamp forest may increase leaching of phosphorus, nitrogen and total organic carbon (Nieminen et al 2005a, Koskinen et al 2011.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Restoration of ecosystem structure and function in boreal spruce swamp forests

Maanavilja¹

2015

Diss. For.

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To be presented, with the permission of the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry of the University of Helsinki, for public criticism in lecture room B2, B-building (Viikki Campus, Latokartanonkaari 7, Helsinki) on May 8 th 2015, at 12 o'clock noon. Drainage to increase timber production has drastically decreased the area of undrained spruce swamp forests in northern Europe. In restoration by rewetting, drainage ditches are blocked to restore the original hydrology and, ultimately, the structure, function and ecosystem services of undrained boreal spruce swamp forests. This study quantifies the restoration success of rewetting regarding plant community composition, moss community carbon assimilation potential, Sphagnum biomass production and surface peat biogeochemistry, and aims to determine the main controls of success. The study sites comprised 18 rewetted, nine undrained and nine drained spruce swamp forests in southern Finland, complemented by sites in the Šumava Mountains, Czech Republic. Drainage had taken place decades prior; the rewetted sites varied in their rewetting age from 1 to 15 years. The results show that rewetting has to raise the water table above a threshold to initiate any changes in the drained ecosystem. If the threshold is crossed, the changes that occur will be rapid. Two strands of development emerged throughout the different components of the ecosystem: development towards the undrained reference state and development towards a new direction, different from both the undrained and the drained state. Rewetting created favourable conditions for Sphagnum photosynthesis. Sphagnum mosses recovered in cover and biomass production rapidly. The new growth started the accumulation of the porous surface organic matter layer characteristic of mires, which increased microbial decomposition activity in the surface organic layer towards undrained levels. Meanwhile, rewetting applied on the compacted, physicochemically altered peat created wet, unstable hydrological conditions, which increased the cover of opportunistic plant species in the understory and caused high NH4 mobilization and CH4 production in the surface organic layer. Demanding spruce swamp forest species were lacking at the rewetted sites, but rewetting was successful in restoring the common species and directing the ecosystem towards mire-like functioning.Keywords: peatland forest, vegetation, Sphagnum, moss photosynthesis, biomass production, biogeochemistry 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThis thesis is a result of the efforts of the many people who gave their time and expertise to the research project. Thank you for accompanying me on this venture. First, I want to express my gratitude to my supervisor Eeva-Stiina Tuittila. Thank you for your insightful thinking and persistent support. To my co-authors, thank you for your contribution. It has been a privilege to work with so many intelligent, creative and generous people. Your knowledge, skills and enthusiasm, be it in peatland restoration, plant ecophysiology, statistics or soil biogeochemistry, ...

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“…These guidelines list sedimentation ponds and pits, peak 46 runoff control (PRC), breaks in cleaning, submerged weirs, and wetland buffers as structures for 47 D r a f t 4 68% (Kløve 2000) and -379-85% (Samson-Dô 2015). Among structures aiming to retain SS, wetland 57 buffers have been acknowledged as highly efficient (Sallantaus et al 1998, Nieminen et al 2005. 58 However, buffer construction is restricted to areas, where sloping land enables high water table only in 59 the buffer itself, without raising water table and disturbing tree growth upstream.…”

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confidence: 99%

Model-based evaluation of sediment control in a drained peatland forest after ditch network maintenance

Haahti¹,

Nieminen

Finér

et al. 2018

Can. J. For. Res.

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Reducing the strain on water bodies caused by sediment loads released after ditch network maintenance (DNM) is addressed in operational peatland forestry by implementing sediment control structures in ditches. This study evaluates computationally alternative sediment control scenarios in a 5.2 ha deep peat site in eastern Finland. Coupled to a distributed hydrological model, peat erosion and transport in the ditches were simulated for the first year after DNM with 15 scenarios consisting of individual structures (e.g., sedimentation ponds) and their combinations. One scenario represented the prevailing conditions with a V-notch weir at the catchment outlet. All scenarios were evaluated against a baseline scenario in which no structures affected the catchment sediment processes. The results suggested that bed erosion can be efficiently prevented with breaks in cleaning and structures ponding water. It was proven less efficient to trap already eroded material with sedimentation ponds and pits. The structures raising ditch water level had limited effects on water table levels in the strips between ditches, plausibly not impairing tree growth. The process-based modeling presented here provided a yet unexplored approach to comprehensively evaluating alternatives for sediment control, which is highly needed to address the gap between existing scientific knowledge and operational peatland forestry practices.

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Capacity of riparian buffer zones to reduce sediment concentrations in discharge from peatlands drained for forestry

Cited by 34 publications

References 12 publications

Linking Flow Regime and Water Quality in Rivers: a Challenge to Adaptive Catchment Management

Linking Flow Regime and Water Quality in Rivers: a Challenge to Adaptive Catchment Management

Restoration of ecosystem structure and function in boreal spruce swamp forests

Model-based evaluation of sediment control in a drained peatland forest after ditch network maintenance

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